DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Chapter 15 - Preliminaries Continued

Anticipation was something that he'd not felt for many years. Yet here Kakashi was, hoping that the next month would go by quickly, if only so he could kill his former teammates sooner. It had been a dull few weeks as far as the Akatsuki was concerned. It turned out that preparing for a full-scale invasion of a major village took more coordination than Kakashi cared to admit. Not that he was participating in it at all. That was Orochimaru's business.

Most of the time, Kakashi would simply find a secluded area of Orochimaru's vast hideout and train. Even after years with Shisui's sharingan, he had yet to master it fully. It took Uchiha clan members lifetimes to master their eyes, so it was only natural that Kakashi would be at a disadvantage. Though the Senju cells implanted in him by Orochimaru helped with his chakra reserves, meaning he could use the eyes more effectively.

Currently, Kakashi was in the middle of an expansive cavern of stone, with support pillars carved to look like serpents coiling up towards the ceiling. Breathing heavily and staring at the remnants of a large boulder, which had been reduced to pebbles, Kakashi released the Mangekyou, returning to the normal sharingan.

A slow clap echoed through the chamber, causing Kakashi to lazily turn around. Orochimaru had his signature half smirk plastered on his face as he approached. "My, my. Dear Kakashi, you are mastering those eyes marvelously. Obito won't know what hit him."

"He's mine, don't forget that. Just as Itachi is yours for that perverse body swapping ritual," Kakashi crossed his arms.

Orochimaru shook off the statement with a dismissive wave. "Yes, yes. Young Rin is yours to kill as well. Though Minato took my Hokage's seat from me, so I think I'll be assisting you in killing him. Besides, Itachi's body is only a means to an end. Our esteemed leader's body is the one I want."

Kakashi nodded lazily. "Yes, you've made that abundantly clear. You trust me far too much. You know what he'd do to you if I told him what you were planning."

"Kukuku, my dear Kakashi," Orochimaru grinned. "After all the nice things I've done for you, what with those eyes and Hashirama's cells, yet you still hint at blackmailing me? I'm disappointed," the Sannin teased.

Kakashi rolled his sharingan. "Cut the theatrics. You know well enough that I couldn't care less what happens after I kill Obito and Rin."

"What a heartless individual you are, Kakashi. Don't you care for your old teammates at all?" Orochimaru jabbed.

Kakashi ignored the question, seeing as how Orochimaru wanted to do the exact same thing to Jiraiya and Tsunade. "How long were you watching me, anyways?"

"Long enough to know that poor Obito won't live to see another year," Orochimaru smirked.

Kakashi nodded, readjusting his mask. "He'll get what's coming to him, alright. I'm going to watch the life drain from those eyes of his before I take them out of his skull."

A light clearing of the throat came from the tunnel behind Orochimaru. The Sannin turned around to spy Kabuto, with Kakashi crossing his arms at the appearance of Orochimaru's lackey.

"I'm sorry to intrude, Lord Orochimaru, but I'm afraid that Lord Pain has summoned Kakashi," Kabuto informed quietly.

The two partners instantly shared a wary look between them. Neither of them had turned the other in, they knew that much. And Kakashi had never met Pain in person before. So what could possibly be the reason for this summons?

Kakashi brushed past Orochimaru, raising a hand in a farewell gesture. "Best not to anger the man. I'll go see what he wants."

Kabuto turned to watch Kakashi fade away into the darkness of the tunnels. Orochimaru stepped forward, coming to a halt next to his trusted aide. "Follow him. Let me know if anything strange occurs," the Sannin said, his eyes narrowing.

"My lord? Is Kakashi not our ally?" Kabuto asked in confusion.

"Perhaps. But one can never be too careful, Kabuto."

Naruto had been waiting for an opportunity to show off his individual skill for a while. He hadn't been able to do so since his time in the Academy. The bell test had been about teamwork, as had he and sasuke's battle against Haku. Then came the Chunin Exams. The very essence of the tests were teamwork. But now, an opportunity had been presented to him to display his skill, and he'd be damned if he was going to screw it up.

Naruto grinned at Sasuke, holding out a fist. "See you in the next round?"

The Uchiha smirked, his knuckles connecting with the blonde's. "You better not lose before the final."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Naruto chuckled in return, backflipping off of the observation deck and landing in a crouch on the arena floor.

Likewise, his competition, Choji, jumped down to face him. The two of them made their way towards the center of the arena, where Genma was waiting for them. He would act as the referee. Naruto held his head high, a slight pep in his step, as if he knew that victory was assured.

Choji, on the other hand, looked nervous. After all, he was facing Naruto, the top student in their class, and the best one on one fighter save for maybe Sasuke. Naruto noticed this, but he didn't say anything, because Choji was a friend, and he didn't want to alienate the poor guy.

Genma looked between the pair as they arrived in the center. "The both of you ready?"

Naruto nodded, but before Choji could as well, a voice from the top platform called out. "Choji!"

"Rin-sensei?" the Akimichi looked confused.

But Rin was grinning, pulling the ace out of her sleeve. Maybe this would show Obito that she wasn't someone to be messed with. "If you win, I'll take you out for all you can eat barbecue!"

Choji's eyes widened, and his previously nervous demeanor was instantly replaced by cold resolve and determination. He dropped into a ready stance and nodded at Genma.

Naruto's eyes widened as well, abd he even took half a step backwards out of fear. Everyone in their year knew what a monster Choji could be when he had food on his mind. Naruto's hands rose defensively. "Hey, easy now, Choji. We're friends, remem-"

Naruto was cut off when a giant fist smacked him square in the chest, sending him tumbling across the hard ground twenty meters away. The punch had been landed as soon as Genma's hand fell, starting the match.

The blonde picked himself up off of the ground and wiped his mouth. "So that's how you wanna play it, huh?"

Naruto didn't get the chance to retaliate, having to dodge to the side instead. A massive, rapidly-spinning sphere flew past him and slammed into the wall, sprouting a web of cracks that ran to just below the observation platform. But before Naruto could think, the sphere reversed course and came at him again, forcing him to repeat the dodge.

Choji attacked once more, and Naruto leapt into the air this time, coming to land on the sphere, where he began to backpedal rapidly. Balancing on the expanded Choji, naruto crossed his fingers, and a dozen clones formed in a semicircle in front of Choji. They dug their heels into the ground and braced for the impact, slowing Choji's momentum gradually, until the Akimichi came to a complete stop. Naruto backflipped off of his classmate and landed behind his clones.

All of their hands were red and smoking from the friction, and they vanished seconds later. Naruto then held his hand out to the side, and the rapidly spinning blue sphere of chakra formed in his hand.

"I didn't want to do this, Choji, but you gave me no choice," Naruto said as the Rasengan reached its full size. He pushed off of his plant leg and rushed at the still expanded Choji. The Rasengan was pressed into Choji's chest.

To Naruto's surprise, the Rasengan disappeared, along with his hand, as it was sucked into Choji's expanded body. Withdrawing his hand, Naruto looked incredulously at the completely undamaged Choji, who promptly backhanded Naruto.

The blonde sailed another ten meters away, crashing onto his back and sliding another couple meters. Naruto groaned, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth as he rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. He turned around and looked at Choji with true anger for the first time.

The Akimichi heir had returned to his normal size, but he had the same look on his face that Naruto did. Nodding to himself, the blonde smirked, crossing his fingers at the same time. Instantly, two dozen shadow clones appeared behind him, his own personal army. With a simple wave, they charged at Choji, who increased the size of his hand again with his Partial Expansion Jutsu. Swinging it downwards, he crushed three clones into smoke, but the rest got past his defenses and quickly surrounded him.

In order to defend himself, Choji blew up to the size he'd been previously. The clones of Naruto began to circle him like wolves waiting for their prey to make a mistake. Choji slowly rotated himself, eyeing as many at a time as he possibly could, but it wasn't enough. He felt an impact to the back of his head that jarred him. When he whirled around, he saw nothing but pacing Naruto clones again. The action was repeated again, and Choji turned to face the direction fo the attack. He saw nothing, even chancing a look over at the real Naruto, who yawned, having not moved from his spot.

Choji growled, facing the real Naruto. Fully expecting an attack from behind again, Choji dropped into his human boulder form and put it in full reverse, dissipating three Naruto clones as he made his way out of the circle. When he was far enough away from the remaining clones, Choji popped out of the human boulder and shrunk back down while expanding both of his hands at the same time.

Planting his feet, Choji brought both of his arms out wide, then snapped them forward. "Partial Expansion Jutsu: Thunderclap!"

His oversized hands created a wind blast that slammed into Naruto's clones, destroying all of them, and even knocking the real Naruto into the air. A look of surprise should have been plastered on his face, but instead, there was a simple wry grin.

Naruto disappeared in midair, as if he'd evaporated. At the same time, Choji felt a rough pair of hands grab him by the shoulders and wrestle him to the ground. Feeling a knee go into his back and one of his arms jerked backwards in a compromising position, Choji realized that he had lost.

"Match! Naruto wins!" Genma announced.

Naruto released Choji and stood up as the Akimichi rolled over. The blonde held out a hand that Choji took, a downtrodden expression covering his face as Naruto hauled him to his feet.

"How'd you do it?"

"I marked you with my Flying Raijin when my Rasengan sank into you," Naruto said simply.

Choji nodded, accepting the defeat. "Oh."

Naruto broke out into a wide grin. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over it! That was awesome! You totally had me on the ropes for most of the match. You're full of surprises, Choji."

Choji let out a small chuckle and allowed a small grin back, thanking the blonde for the compliment. The pair shook hands and turned to rejoin their teams.

When Naruto emerged back on top of the observation platform, he immediately turned for Sasuke, who had been joined by Sakura and Obito. "Was I great, or what?"

Sasuke smirked with amusement, fist-bumping his friend while Sakura lit up with praise. "Naruto, I never knew you were able to plan things ahead like that! Obito-sensei explained everything that was happening and it was so fast that I could barely follow it!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked up at his sensei slash brother figure. But, as usual, the Uchiha's eyes remained impassive and unreadable. "Nothing from you?" Naruto asked.

"There's nothing to say. You won. If you'd have lost, you'd be experiencing a completely different emotion right now," Obito said, releasing a small bit of killer intent that made Naruto shiver.

"Point made. Who's fighting next, anyways?"

"That girl Tenten from Guy-sensei's team, and some girl named Rumi from Konoha," Sakura relayed.

Naruto gave a disinterested shrug. He didn't know either of the combatants personally, so he didn't particularly care about the outcome. As it happened, Tenten won by a landslide, her opponent having forfeited after seeing a single barrage of weapons from one of Tenten's scrolls.

The next two matches were similarly imbalanced. In the first, Shikamaru faced off against Chisi, a teammate of Rumi, who had just lost to Tenten. The match ended rather quickly when Shikamaru threw two paper bombs on either side of his opponent, then used his Shadow Possession to immobilize him. Chisi quickly gave up when he realized that he had the potential to be incinerated if he so much as moved.

The second was between Neshi and the boy from the sand who used puppets, Kankuro. This one was the quickest yet, with Kankuro's puppet placing a small scratch on Neshi's upper arm, then revealed that the blade was poisoned. Neshi agreed to exchange the match for the antidote, which Kankuro tossed to him in a small glass vial. That put an entire team out of commission, as Neshi was the last surviving teammate of the previous pair. A bad break.

As the remaining fighters awaited the next matchup with anticipation, Naruto yawned, leaning forward on the rails. "These last few matches have been boring as hell. Whoever's next better give me a good show or-"

Naruto immediately ceased his complaints when the names were displayed on the board. He barely registered Itachi announcing them, his eyes zeroing in on a form across the room, on the complete other side of the observation platform. He found a pair of eyes already waiting for his, the pair holding their gaze for a few seconds before the other broke it and lowered himself into the arena on a bed of sand.

Naruto slowly turned and glanced backwards, where he saw something that nearly made him cry. Sakura was genuinely afraid. Even Obito, with his emotionless sharingan, had a hint of wariness in those orbs. Sasuke had the same look on his face that Naruto did. They were al experiencing the same emotion. Fear.

Sakura gulped and slowly made to vault over the railing, before a large hand stopped her. It belonged to Obito, who was presenting her with a look of what almost seemed like pity. "Remember everything I taught you. Don't take unnecessary risks. Forfeit if necessary. Wounded pride is better than a career-ending injury."

Sakura nodded silently, looking back to her two teammates, who seemed to have finally shaken themselves out of their trance. Naruto had a wide grin that did look a bit forced, whole Sasuke had a small half-smile going on that looked way less convincing than Naruto's.

"You got this, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed, with Sasuke nodding his assent.

"Show them that Team 7 is no joke."

Sakura nodded to the pair of them. She would have liked to call them out, but she figured that things would be better off if they didn't beat themselves up for not believing in her. As she dropped towards the floor, she felt a chill go up her spine, and her hands started shaking as she walked towards the center of the arena, where Genma and her opponent, Gaara, were waiting.

Genma was giving her the same pitying look that Obito had given her, only this one was much easier to discern, as Obito thrived off of hiding his emotions. Gaara stared at her with a look that could only be described as hunger. He looked like he was ready to kill something, or someone.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Sakura dropped into her ready stance, nodding to Genma. Two seconds later, the Special Jonin's hand fell, starting the match. Immediately, Sakura leapt back, fully expecting an attack from the boy's sand, but to her surprise, she saw nothing. Gaara was simply watching her with his arms crossed in front of him.

Sakura eyed him warily, and began to shift her weight to the left, preparing to dodge that way if necessary, but Gaara made no movement towards her. Sakura quickly tossed a pair of shuriken towards Gaara's face, and a small circle of sand quickly appeared to block them, only to disappear again.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and pushed off of her plant foot, making a mad dash towards Gaara. She tossed two kunai as she approached, trying to use the sand defense to obscure his vision. It worked, to some degree, as she was able to skirt towards his right flank, tossing another pair of shuriken.

The whole time, Gaara had yet to move.

Growling out of frustration, Sakura stood up straight. "You're not even taking this seriously! Am I really not worth your effort?!"

Gaara didn't answer, simply turning his head in her direction and glaring at her.

Sakura grew tired of playing it safe, and decided to engage him in close combat. She leapt into the air and aimed an axe kick at his head, but she was repelled by the sand. She touched back down and shot forward again, a right hook meeting the same fate. Sakura tried this tactic a few more times before she suddenly felt a pain in her gut.

Looking down, she saw a fist made entirely of sand, its impact causing her to completely lose her breath. She doubled over, clutching her abdomen and coughing. A second blow hit her beneath the chin, sending her sprawling backwards. When she looked up, her eyes went wide at the sight of a much larger fist about to be brought down on top of her. She rolled to the right, avoiding the impact that cracked the stone floor.

Raising herself into a crouch, Sakura placed her hands on the ground at just the right time to raise a Mud Wall to protect her from the ensuing backhand strike. Her wall cracked and fell, but it gave her plenty of time to retreat and regroup.

The pair played this game of cat and mouse for a couple minutes, Gaara unable to crush her beneath the sands, and her unable to even make contact with her opponent. Finally, though, Sakura'd had enough. She balled her fist, an idea coming to her brain.

Fortunately, the large fist of sand was headed straight for her, so she shot ahead, as if from a bow. Bringing her fist forwards, Sakura collided, knuckle on knuckle with the sand construct, and pierced through it like an arrow. Emerging on the other side, Sakura continued her charge towards Gaara, raising her fist once again.

Gaara's eyes actually widened for half a second, clearly surprised, but not enough to panic. With a wave of his hand, a wall a whole foot thick was erected in front of him, completely blocking Sakura's path.

Half a second later, Gaara was staring wide-eyed at a two-foot in diameter circular hole, through which, Sakura's arm protruded.

"Am I worth your time now?" Sakura smirked from the other side.

Up on the observation platform, Naruto and Sasuke were both having trouble picking their jaws up off of the floor. They turned their heads almost comically to look at their sensei for some kind of explanation. The only problem was, that Obito didn't have one. He was only watching the fight with increased focus.

Back on the arena floor, Gaara's eyes darkened, narrowing from his previous expression. Before Sakura could retract her arm, she felt resistance on the other side of the sand wall as it was grabbed by tendrils of sand that quickly formed a pair of hands that held onto her forearm.

Sakura placed her left hand on the sand wall to try and brace herself and pull her arm free, but the sand's grip wouldn't budge. Gaara stared directly into her eyes through the hole in the wall. With a simple twitch of his fingers, Sakura let out a blood-curdling scream.

Her arm had been bent the opposite way, dislocating her elbow and snapping her upper arm in the process. A jagged bone protruded from her bicep, blood dripping off of it to mix with the sand.

Where her left hand was, another hole opened up in the wall, this time of Gaara's doing. Sakura felt the same grip of two hands of sand yet again, and she made eye contact with Gaara.

"No! Please! No more! I give up," she whimpered, but Gaara didn't seem to care, even as Genma announced that Sakura forfeited, refusing to lower his defenses.

With an almost sadistic demeanor, Gaara's fingers began to twitch again, only for the entire wall of sand, as well as the pair of hands holding Sakura's left arm, to completely disappear in a rush of wind. Sakura crumpled to her knees, holding her mangled right arm with her left hand, which had thankfully been spared.

She looked back up with teary eyes and spied something that warmed her heart. Her sensei stood in front of her, his fists clenched at his sides. As her gaze rose, taking in Obito's full form, she registered that an aura of what seemed to be light blue flames surrounded him. Was this one of his fire jutsu?

Up on the observation deck, Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look of disbelief. One second, their sensei had been right next to them, and the next, he was down on the arena floor, putting off waves of power that would make even the most skilled Jonin falter for a moment.

Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts by a spike of pain. Her adrenaline had previously kept it down, but now that her sensei stood between her and danger, it was wearing off. Luckily, she felt the pain begin to subside when Rin-sensei arrived next to her. The Jonin immediately began emergency medical treatment, her hands glowing green as she tended to Sakura's arm. Guy-sensei landed in a crouch next to her, intending to personally transport the girl to the hospital if necessary.

Despite her worries being over, Sakura couldn't help but notice a feeling as if five hundred pounds had been laid on her chest. It took her a while to realize that it was the full extent of Obito's killer intent.

The Uchiha's eyes had morphed instantly into the three red scythes on a black field, and his power had surged, with an aura around him that made it appear that blue flames were rolling off of his shoulders.

Credit to Gaara, he barely moved, save for an involuntary shiver that was shared by every person in the room, save for the Kumo sensei, Guy, and Itachi. Every fiber of his being was telling Obito to kill this kid right now for hurting one of his comrades, but logic had prevailed. He knew that if that were to happen, it would incite full-scale war.

The other two Sand students and their sensei quickly reacted by taking positions behind Gaara, seemingly ready for a fight. In response, Naruto, Sasuke, and surprisingly, Shikamaru, took positions behind Obito, who held out his hand for them to hold their position.

The Sand Jonin, whose face was obscured by a cloth headwrap that hung down over the left side of his face, spoke up. "My student won the fight fair and square. You had no right to interfere."

Obito bristled at that. "No right? NO RIGHT?" he roared.

"She forfeited, yet he continued, nearly duplicating her injuries. You're lucky that I interfered, or you'd be picking up little pieces of that redheaded shit for weeks," Obito growled, his aura of blue flames increasing in volume and height.

Sasuke and Naruto shared a fearful glance. This wasn't the Obito that they knew. Sure, the guy was volatile, but his chakra had never felt like this before. Ordinarily, it felt cold and suppressed. This was primal, a sheer mass of murderous chakra, which was probably why Obito suppressed it.

"Was that a threat?" the Sand Jonin narrowed his eyes.

Obito's right hand ignited, orange and red flames licking across his skin in a technique that Sasuke had never seen before. With his sharingan active, he could see everything about Obito. He made a mental note to ask him about a few things, namely that new jutsu, as well as the transparent set of ribs that seemed to surround him. A quick glance told him that no one else could see them for some odd reason.

"You're damn right that was a threat. You should consider the fact that your student is still breathing as a gesture of my goodwill. Now get the hell out of my sight before I do something that you all deserve," Obito said quietly, his outrage turning to cold, calculated fury.

While the people of the Sand were prideful, they weren't stupid. The sensei recalled his three students, returning to the observation platform. Obito's chakra and killer intent subsided, and he extinguished the fire coating his right hand. He turned around just in time to see Guy lift an unconscious Sakura up into his arms bridal-style.

Obito looked down to Naruto. "Go with her."

Normally, Naruto would protest, as he wanted to see Sasuke's match. But this time, it was clear that Sakura's health was of utmost importance. He nodded, taking up position next to Guy, who raised an eyebrow at Obito.

"You're not coming?"

"Someone has to make sure these assholes don't try anything else," Obito responded quietly.

Guy jerked his head towards the dais. "That's Itachi's job. Come on, she's your student."

Obito shook his head, looking down to Naruto. "Take care of her."

Naruto nodded, and Guy gave an exasperated sigh. "Alright, come on Rin, the longer we take, the worse her arm is gonna get."

As Sakura's three escorts departed, Obito and Sasuke returned to their position on the observation deck with Shikamaru. Unfortunately, Obito could no longer focus, as one thought was running through his head: it was his fault.